Category Archives: Business Law

Parmenter O’Toole is pleased to announce the addition of Josh Reece as a new associate.  Josh, a graduate of Mona Shores High School, is returning to the area and to Parmenter O’Toole where he worked as a summer clerk while in law school.  He is excited to come home to live and work in the [...]

The Municipal Legal Briefs, a publication of the Michigan Municipal League, recently published an article written by Parmenter O’Toole attorney John Schrier, with assistance of summer clerk Colleen Healy, concerning a municipality’s ability to indemnify another party.  The article, “Municipal Indemnification:  The Evolving Case Law,” outlines how the courts have expanded a municipality’s legal ability [...]

Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Parmenter O’Toole’s trial court victory.  Parmenter O’Toole was retained to defend several clients who were involved in state court litigation regarding stock redemption agreements.  The stockholders who were redeemed later claimed fraud and forgeries.  The trial court judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims and plaintiffs filed an appeal to the Michigan [...]

By William J. Meier, PARMENTER O’TOOLE On October 5, 2010, Michigan enacted the Commercial Real Estate Broker’s Lien Act giving brokers the right to file a lien as collateral for commissions owed on the sale or lease of commercial real estate.  The new law only applies to commercial real estate and specifically excludes residential properties [...]

By William J. Meier, PARMENTER O’TOOLE On May 25, 2011, Governor Rick Snyder signed into law House Bill 4361, which eliminated the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) and replaced it with a 6% corporate income tax.  Other changes were made to recover the anticipated lost revenue including the elimination of certain business tax incentives, the inclusion [...]

Employers should ensure that their managers and human resources personnel are familiar with the requirements of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”).  The EEOC issued final regulations, effective January 10, 2011, clarifying this recent addition to the growing number of statutes protecting employees with which employers must comply.  GINA expanded the protections under [...]

The new way to start a business is to start out with a vision of making money and not spending it.  Try to create your vision with what you have and see if your customers will buy your products before going deeply in debt.  Borrowing money to try to cover all of the aspects that you believe [...]

Copyright Protection: What is a Copyright? A copyright is the protection created under the United States Copyright Act which protects “an original work of authorship.” Copyrights protect music, photographs, video, films, works of art, software, buildings, and architectural drawings when they are put into a fixed form that can be copied and distributed. What are [...]

The Governor recently signed an amendment to the Michigan Business Tax Act (MBT) to revise the definition of “Purchases from other firms” as it applies to general contractors, heavy construction contractors, and special trade contractors.  “Purchases from other firms” now includes payments for materials that were deducted in determining the cost of goods sold.  Therefore, [...]

We have all had documents shoved in front of us with the rushed command, “Just sign here.”  But how many times do we really stop and think about the effect of our signature? As an example, a building supplier has a form credit agreement for new customers that includes individual guarantee provisions.  When a new [...]